Letters

Dear Editor,
At a recent annual presentation to community leaders in Santa Fe by the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the National Nuclear Security, Administration (U.S. Department of Energy), a participant asked if LANL could offer child care for its employees.
The response from both Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan and Kim Davis Lebak of DOE/NNSA was “no” for liability reasons.
The National Laboratory that developed the first nuclear weapon in the history of mankind is concerned about the liability of a child care center.
Think about it.
Jack Sullivan
Los Alamos

Have open mind for Rec Bond vote

Dear Editor,
Please read, and please have an open mind. Our family always says, options are always better than no options!
Even if you don¹t care, or don’t like it, consider “voting yes” to the upcoming rec bond. There are many families in Los Alamos that do want these recreational facilities.
We should support that desire and the excitement that it is generating. When the seniors needed money for improving the senior center, many of us voted “yes.” How does that benefit me? I’m not a senior.

When the county’s consultants asked which recreation projects were most favored, golf course work was just about last on the list. Yet it gets a $4.5 million piece of the bond pie.
Why? “Because,” as Mallory so nicely put it, “it’s there.”
So much has been invested that it’s nearly unthinkable to do anything other than maintain and upgrade the course, even though most taxpayers either don’t care or actively wish it were gone. They’d probably be annoyed to learn it costs the county about half a million dollars a year out-of-pocket just to keep it going. The proposed rec center will be about as expensive, not including the cost of construction.
The real rule is: if you build it, you will pay. And pay. The bond alone will last long enough that many of your kids will get to pay off some of it, but the maintenance and upgrades will be the gift that keeps on giving, long enough for their kids to ante up too.
But by then, some other sports facility will be the hot ticket. Enthusiasm for new toys can fade fast, but the credit card bill doesn’t care.
David North
Los Alamos

Sheriff Marco Lucero was elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014 by stressing the importance of the sheriff’s role in Los Alamos. Majorities on County Councils, not including myself, have worked against this, drastically cutting his budget and ultimately calling an election last November to eliminate the office of sheriff. Our citizens disagreed, and voted to keep an elected sheriff.
Lucero will present a proposal at next week’s budget hearings to restore his office’s budget. I support returning the duties that have traditionally been done by the Los Alamos sheriff: process and writ serving, sex offenders tracking, transportation of prisoners and court security. Because most of these duties have recently been done by police officers (often on overtime) or contracted personnel, a full-time deputy sheriff (trained and certified by the New Mexico law enforcement academy) could do them more efficiently. Transfer of these duties would not increase the overall budget, since we are already spending the money for them in other departments.

I share John Ramsay’s objection to the USPS designation, “White Rock,” as part of my mailing address. (ref: Monitor letter of March 29, 2017) White Rock is not an incorporated city, nor is Los Alamos. Our only local government is that of an H-class county.
It is entirely resonable to separate areas within the county by ZIP codes to expedite mail delivery, but not to arbitrarily change the name of the destination.
To suggest that both must be changed to deliver mail to my residence, which hasn’t changed its physical location in 50 years, is ludicrous. For examply, the city where I was born (before ZIP codes were invented) is also called, “LA.”
By my count, it is now subdivided by the USPS into 214 ZIP codes. One city name, more than 200 ZIP codes, yet the USPS seems able to cope. Why not here?
Don Hanson
Los Alamos

I just read in the Daily Post that the Los Alamos County Council is considering building a Splash Pad park in White Rock. My initial response was “Boy the county can’t wait to spend our tax dollars on nonsense once again.”
The worst part of it is that they want to borrow more money to get this project and others done! It seems to me that we haven’t learned anything from watching our National Government take us, the citizens, into debt that could possibly collapse our economy!
Do you realize that the Splash Pad area is a bad idea - let me share the reasons why I think it is.
It will only be used a maximum of two months out of the year during hot weather. These type of projects are built in Phoenix and other places where they can be utilized several months out of the year.
The cost of building this park is not worth going into debt for.
It will be built in White Rock which means it will only serve that community for the most part.
Once again, as citizens of Los Alamos/White Rock, we will be stuck with subsidizing maintenance, etc.

House Bill 412 calls for closing many exemption loopholes to address the budget crisis that our state faces. No doubt, there are many aspects of the Tax Reform Bill that need just that – reform. However, HB 412 also calls for the eliminating the sales tax exemption for Non-Profits – all Non-Profits large, small, 501c3, churches etc. Thus subjecting non-profits to Sales and Gross Receipts Tax.
Under HB 412, Non-Profits would need to collect and pay GRT on all contracts (local, state, federal), grants from foundations and United Way, fees from programs, classes and services. Most non-profits are local, community-oriented, and are responding to community needs. Many exist on grants and contacts to provide services that government is not.
This has the potential to be disastrous for non-profits, and I have a front row seat in that regard, as a volunteer sitting on the board of The Family YMCA.

Ida S. Pacheco and her family want to thank you for the kind and encouraging words, beautiful flowers, lovely cards, thoughts, prayers and masses. All that you shared to console our hearts in the loss of Raymond David Pacheco, have comforted and sustained us. Thank you most sincerely for your generous support and sympathy.
The Pacheco Family
Los Alamos

Much to be thankful for
living in Los Alamos

We have always loved living in Los Alamos. The views are beautiful and what other small town has enjoyed a Joshua Bell concert? But there are other reasons that make it nice to live here even when it is not a good day.

Easter is the worst time for pet rabbits and for rabbit rescuers. Many people will buy their children a pet rabbit for Easter, only to learn that a few weeks, even days later, their children, have lost interest and that the rabbits are a lot more work than expected.
This leads to people surrendering their pet to the shelter, or worse, just dumping domestic rabbits in the wild, which leaves these prey animals unprotected and essentially left to die from starvation, predators, humans and diseases.
NM House Rabbit Society has rented the back of several Albuquerque buses and Santa Fe buses to try to educate people on the many needs of these creatures.
Please help spread the word to not get rabbits for children for Easter gifts in anyway possible. Thank you so much for all that you do for our rabbit rescue organization. Each and everyone of you is greatly appreciated.
Laura Allen
NM House Rabbit
Society Volunteer

Support HB 123, a bill that addresses overpopulation of unwanted animals

I write in support of House Bill 123, a bill that responds to legislative momentum to address New Mexico’s overpopulation of unwanted companion animals, a problem which results in the euthanasia of 60,000 dogs and cats each year.
HB 123 creates a non-appropriations based mechanism for funding state low-cost spay/neuter through a $100 a year surcharge on pet food companies for each dog or cat food product type sold here, raising about $750,000 a year. Unwanted companion animals are a statewide epidemic that impacts not only dogs and cats, but New Mexico’s families and counties. Counties, in particular, bear the fiscal brunt of this statewide problem. For example, a 2012 study on the scope and impact of animal overpopulation showed that collectively counties budgeted $27 million in 2011 to fund animal shelters (an increase of $2.1 million from 2008), even as upwards of 80 percent of shelters’ animals were euthanized. In 2012, those costs increased, as we would expect.

Have you felt that painful, tightening, gut-wrenching feeling when you hear someone state something that infringes upon your rights or beliefs?
Good, that means you’re human. The feeling comes from an emotional system that helps us survive.
Have you allowed that feeling to develop into anger towards the one expressing the statement?
That’s not good. It’s true that anger is part of our humanity, but it comes from the lowest and most ancient parts of our brain, one we share with lizards.
Have you taken an oppositional stance of the idea or policy that was stated?
That’s good. You’re using the higher levels of your brain to do something constructive with that painful feeling you felt initially.
Is your opposition causing you to see the one who made the statement as someone from another group that’s evil?
That’s not good. You’re letting the lower levels of your brain control the higher levels. You’re developing what we call hatred.
Is your opposition directed at the idea or policy that was stated with the understanding that the one who made the statement is your brother or sister?